Wisden Cricketer obituary
Opposing counties were apt to make the mistake in the late 1950s and through the 1960s of thinking Gloucestershire were a soft touch when it came to their new ball attack. David Robert Smith, like his partner Tony Brown, wasted the minimum of energy on his run-up. What he did possess was a handsome action, an ability to hit the seam with constant accuracy and a natural away swing from the right-hander. And he was faster than he looked. There was more than a touch of technical malevolence in that deceptively leisurely approach: after all, it brought him 1,250 wickets from 1956-70 and five Tests against India in 1961-62. He topped 100 wickets in a season five times. Apart from his Test appearances, when conditions in India did him no great favours, he had gone on the 1960-61 MCC tour to New Zealand. He was a good tourist, quiet and conscientious. Many of his 292 catches were expertly taken without fuss at slip and on occasions he cherished the scope to belt the ball from low in the order. Although diffident by nature, he was always a popular member of the county side. Injuries at times worked against him, not just at cricket. As a talented left-winger, he played for Bristol Boys at football, later joining Bristol City and, in 1959, Millwall. But cricket remained his unwavering favourite. He made a complete break, however, on his retirement from the game, hardly ever again revisiting the county ground to the surprise and disappointment of many of his former team-mates. Instead he would spend six days a week helping his wife, Peggy, in their fancy goods shop at Fishponds, a district of Bristol near where he was born. "I don't bother too often to see sport on the TV either," he used to say. "Never was much good at sitting and watching." David, a devoted family man, died suddenly at home on December 17, aged 69.
David Foot